Beginning with version 2.0, Internet Explorer added a number of attributes
to its table tags. These attributes let you set colors for the backgrounds
and borders of table elements. They can be used to set values for the
whole table, individual rows, and individual cells. Values can be set
in a nested fashion, so that a specification for a single cell can override
the broader setting for its row or the whole table.

The bgcolor attribute is used to set the background color
of cells within a table. You can set a single background color for
the whole table, or specify different colors for individual rows
and cells. This functionality is also available in Netscape 3.0.

Similar to setting a background color, both Navigator and Internet Explorer
allow you to set a background image for the entire table or individual
cells. The image will automatically be tiled behind the appropriate
table element. The value of the background attribute is
the URL of the image file.

Borders in Netscape and Internet Explorer create a 3-D effect by using
three differently colored strips. There is a thick center strip with much
thinner strips on each side. One of the outer strips is colored darker
than the center strip, and one is lighter, producing a shadowed effect.
Internet Explorer allows you to set the colors for each of these elements when
you have borders turned on with the border attribute in the
<table> tag.

The bordercolor attribute sets the color of the main center strip
of a border.

The bordercolorlight attribute sets the color of the light
strip of a border, the top- or left-most strip. bordercolordark
sets the color of the dark strip, the bottom or right-most strip.

You needn't specify all three border colors. The default for Internet
Explorer's table borders sets the lighter and darker strips about
25% brighter and darker than the main border color.

A number of other formatting options are available in Internet Explorer.
These include setting header and footer rows, grouping columns, and
controlling where rules are drawn in the table. These tags include:
<col>, <colgroup>, <tbody>, <thead>, <tfoot>, and the rules
and frame attributes of the <table> tag.